UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was “disappointed” today that both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders are calling for the defeat of his plan to reunify their war divided nation.

Greek Cypriots poured scorn on the UN reunification plan for their island today while Turkish Cypriots described the blueprint – which will go to parallel referendums next month – as a success.

Talks aimed at reunifying Cyprus began today with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders sitting down with the UN mediator in Nicosia.

Just hours before Cyprus' reunification talks were scheduled to begin today, a small bomb exploded in front of the home of the prime minister of the self-declared Turkish Cypriot state.

GREEK and Turkish Cypriot leaders are to meet tomorrow in New York with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a bid to kickstart stalled peace talks on reunifying Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash today surprisingly appointed the leader of a pro-EU party to form the next government in the breakaway state.

The Turkish Cypriot opposition took a slim lead today in crucial parliamentary elections that could shape the future of divided Cyprus and help define Turkey’s relations with the European Union, early election results showed.

Turkish Cypriots voted today in crucial parliamentary elections that have become a virtual referendum on a plan to reunify the divided island before it enters the European Union in May.

HUNDREDS of Greek Cypriots, frustrated by queues of people waiting to visit the island’s Turkish Cypriot north for the first time in 30 years, broke through chains of UN peacekeepers at a border point yesterday.

HUNDREDS of Cypriots took the first chance in decades yesterday to cross a ceasefire line on their divided island under a Turkish Cypriot scheme denounced by Greek Cypriot officials as a ploy to avoid a real peace deal.

TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said yesterday the signing of an EU accession treaty

The United Nations Security Council remained divided today over a resolution backing Secretary General Kofi Annan’s plan to reunify Cyprus and calling on Greek and Turkish Cypriots to use it as a basis for a settlement.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was today warning the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders that any failure to agree on his unification plan would entrench the division of the Mediterranean island.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented his latest reunification plan for Cyprus to leaders of the Greek and Turkish sides yesterday, with a seven-day deadline for a deal.

Voting ended in the crucial Greek Cypriot presidential election today with exit polls showing opposition candidate Tassos Papadopoulos may emerge victorious.

THE UN delivered a revised reunification plan to the rival Cypriot leaders yesterday in a last bid for agreement before the European Union summit later this week in Copenhagen.

ONE-IN-TWO Greek Cypriots would vote down a UN peace plan for the island in a referendum and 48% think their leaders were wrong to agree even to talk about it, an opinion poll published yesterday suggested.

The UN today handed Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders its long-awaited plan for the reunification of their divided island.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will travel to Cyprus this month in hopes of forming the outline of an agreement to reunify the Mediterranean island after a 27-year split, his chief envoy for Cyprus said.

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders began an intensive round of negotiations today in a bid to overcome the division of their island, a problem that may bedevil the enlargement of the European Union.

The Cypriot reunification talks will begin next week with addressing how to share power between Greek and Turkish islanders in a new republic.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash crossed into the Greek Cypriot-controlled part of Cyprus today for the first time since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The leaders from both sides of Cyprus’s divided society have met for the first time in more than four years in a new effort to break the deadlock in talks regarding the future of the island.